Here's the dirty little secret about Android: After all the work Apple did to get AT&T to relinquish device control for the iPhone and all the great efforts Google made to get the FCC and the U.S. telecoms to agree to open access rules as part of the 700 MHz auction, Android is taking all of those gains and handing the power back to the telecoms.

Yes you can use other app stores, but your telco has already decided what the user apps can and can't do. Most Android implementations are locked down on the user access level as opposed to the app store level. If your app doesn't access any locked down features, than it will work. Otherwise it won't, no matter where you download the application.

Technically, the hardware vender could give you root access but I'm not aware of any phone that actually does.

Search your app store for "root only" and you'll see a few apps that your telco probably won't let a stock phone run

You are aware that you are correct only by technicality? In order to install any software you want you must root (instead of jail breaking) your phone.

If by software you mean different ROMs, you're right. But then again, so what? Once the bootloader is unlocked, it's not like rooting an android phone is rocket science.

And anyway, this isn't really any different than the PC world. You buy a PC from an OEM, they load it down with crapware. You format it as soon as you get it home and install whatever you want. No biggie

Of course, you DO have to wait for the phone to be rooted, but rooting a phone is legal now, and they almost always figure out a way to unlock the bootloader.

#1, it depends on the phone - i checked a few days ago and the droid 2 still hasn't been rooted (of course, it depends on the phone).

#2, to the poser saying that allowing unknown sources gets you any software, this is also wrong; what rooting a device lets you do is install software that doesn't necessarily run on Dalvik or software that modifies system configuration files. A useful example is a wireless tethering application.

I was responding to the claim that you could install anything you want on android without jail breaking, which is just wrong. I wanted to make the philosophical point that will generally less restricted on Android, the phones are just as locked down as iPhones.

And I think it is a different situation from a PC because with a PC you don't have to hack a firmware to over come carrier imposed restriction on the software that is allowed to run.

To make an iPhone truly yours you have to jailbreak it. With an android you have to root it. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.

I think you misunderstand. You can, like joshv said at least on his phone (and my Nexus One), install anything you want without rooting, jail breaking or whatever. You just check a box in the settings to allow "Unknown sources" and you can install any .apk you lay your hands on.

Some stuff like screenshot programs and stuff doesn't work without root tho I've heard. But I think that's just for security so apps can't screenshot what you're doing and send it to the internet somewhere for example.

I'm kind of sorry for you guys tho that the carriers over in the US are such bitches.